11. But Did You Kiss?

11

BUT DID YOU KISS?

Mav stiffened, a flutter of embarrassment burning his ears. Truth be told, he hadn’t been thinking straight. Or much at all. “Telos stole something of mine.”

Telos tensed, gaze darting toward him.

Duke folded his arms across his chest. “And you couldn’t have waited until after the debrief to deal with it?”

Mav hesitated. He was the responsible one. He knew Duke had been relying on him; he knew the mission was more important than any personal matter.

He could easily say, Telos was going to send away the evidence. I caught him before he could. But it wouldn’t justify the decision to press his dried cum against Telos’ mouth, the decision to open Telos up and slide inside him.

“It was time sensitive,” he finally said.

Duke was unmoved. “Your fight, yes. But not what happened after.”

Mav flushed. They’d all heard, hadn’t they? Was it worse for Telos because he’d been on the receiving end?

A glance at Telos showed his face to be carefully blank, his heartbeat steady.

Mav was discovering that it was one of his least favorite expressions on that alpha. Telos hid a lot. He hid so fucking much from Mav, and it itched like a barb under his skin. “It was my fault,” he said. “I pushed Telos into it.”

Duke raised an eyebrow.

Telos snapped his head up to stare at Mav, his jaw working like he was on the verge of saying something.

Ace was thumbing through his phone. “But did you kiss?”

Mav stared. “What?”

Raptor nodded. “Asking the important questions. Did you two kiss, or not?”

“No,” Telos said, sounding scandalized. “Who would kiss him? ”

Ace, Raptor, Crush, Duke, and even the butlers , all smirked or coughed.

It was as though they’d heard Telos’ pulse tripping, back when Mav had said, You like me. But they couldn’t have heard. There were too many ambient sounds for them to notice such a small thing.

Which meant... they’d known? That Telos liked Mav?

That Telos wanted to kiss Mav?

“How did you know?” Mav asked, staring at them in bewilderment. Because the other thing was too much to wrap his head around. “That’s not possible.”

Hadley shook his head disappointedly. “Telos has been obvious for decades —”

Decades?

“Hadley,” Telos hissed, scowling dangerously.

The butler ignored him. “You’re so bad at this, Dragon Master, that I think you need to read the Holy Grail. The book of pickup lines.”

“Cover to cover,” Hilly-Billy added sagely.

“Shut up,” Telos growled.

“But you threw it away,” Hadley continued like Telos hadn’t spoken, pulling a familiar pink book out of his pocket. “Lucky for you, I brought another copy. Hopefully you’ll make the most of it this time.”

Telos hadn’t refuted any of it. He refused to meet Mav’s eyes, as though everything they’d said was true.

He’d liked Mav for decades.

Holy hell, why was Mav only learning about this now?

“The debrief,” Telos said loudly. His panic came through clearly at the back of Mav’s mind.

“And food.” Crush began opening pizza boxes. “It’s getting cold.”

They crowded around the dining table. Estie had shifted back into a human baby during the commotion, and Mav hadn’t even gotten to enjoy holding her, when his thoughts were going in a million directions all at once.

“I’ll take her back.” Telos was suddenly in front of Mav, his strong arms sliding between Mav and Estie. He was pressed close, his gaze fixed on his daughter, but there was a pink tint to his cheeks that hadn’t been there before.

“That looks good on you,” Mav blurted.

Telos froze, his forearm snug against Mav’s chest. “What?”

Mav wet his lips, nervous. He hadn’t done this with another alpha before.

But Telos looked so vulnerable right now, especially when Mav could almost taste his embarrassment.

So he raised his hand to Telos’ face, and carefully touched his knuckle to Telos’ cheek. “You’re blushing.”

Telos’ eyes widened. He clapped his hand over his other cheek and hauled Estie out of Mav’s arms—only to freeze when he found Hilly-Billy with his phone up, recording them.

“For posterity,” Hilly-Billy said, backing away. “There’s a lot riding on this.”

“Minion,” Telos growled.

Mav caught his arm. “The debrief.”

“ Thank you, ” Duke said, now with three slices of pizza on his plate. He gestured for them to sit around the table.

“I’m going to shred you,” Telos hissed at his brother.

“You can shred me tomorrow,” Hilly-Billy whispered back.

Telos sat down heavily next to Mav, his eyes flashing. “I hate everything.”

“Not Estie, though.” Mav gave Estie a finger to hold; she closed her small fist around it eagerly. That soothed the emptiness in his arms, just slightly.

Telos scowled. But he rearranged Estie in his lap without breaking her hold on Mav, pulling over a few sheets of paper and a pen.

“They’re being held at a fairly large compound,” Telos said, sketching some buildings and adding rooms inside the largest one. “Concrete perimeter walls with barbed wire on top, and electricity running through them. The night guards work in pairs and should be easily taken down.

“I didn’t have time to scout out all the rooms, but I know they have a few cells filled with prisoners, all clustered in the middle of this building. No windows in the holding rooms. Walls and floors are concrete. Steel doors, one guard with a ring of keys. Here’s the rough layout. Guards patrol these areas: here, here, and here. Exits are here. No cameras inside the main building.”

Telos hadn’t spent that long in the compound; Mav had followed him from a distance, watching his coordinates constantly.

For him to get this much intel in such a short time... Mav’s instincts approved.

“That’s good,” Mav said.

Telos’ eyebrows jumped. Then he stared suspiciously at Mav. “I haven’t told you the bad news yet. They’re transporting the victims in two days, to another location. I left my tracker with Pinks’ friends. We need to strike before they move.”

“Or we could strike while they move,” Raptor said. “They’d be less prepared.”

“The victims might get caught in the crossfire,” Duke pointed out. “I’m not sure I want to risk that.”

“There’ll be more witnesses, too,” Crush said. “You scaly types won’t want to shift in front of traffic. Who knows how many of them will jump out and start to target you?”

Duke nodded. “Plan A is to infiltrate the base. Here’s what we’ll do.”

Mav was soaking up his team’s confidence about their plans, when everyone began heading for bed.

“Breakfast at seven tomorrow,” Duke said.

“I vote hotdogs for breakfast,” Crush said.

“Doesn’t your cook feed you actual food?” Raptor asked.

Crush sighed. “Cook says hotdogs are the worst food that ever existed. She makes me feel guilty when I don’t eat my vegetables. Or when I ask for hotdogs, like I’m insulting her culinary skills.”

“You need an omega who’ll be happy to give you hotdogs,” Ace said. “Or an omega who’ll happily give you his hotdog.”

Crush grinned. “I can’t wait to find one. Blind date tomorrow. Blind date, blind date!”

“Blind date, blind date,” Raptor and Ace chanted.

Duke looked disapproving, but there was something else in his expression, too.

Mav groaned. “We’re on a rescue mission, not a mission for you guys to pick up dates.”

“Same difference,” Ace said.

“Besides, you already have a date,” Crush complained. “You should be happy for us.”

“I—” Mav hesitated. It wasn’t as though he and Telos were anything. They hadn’t talked about this thing between them, and now they were about to spend the next few hours alone in the same room.

Well, Estie would be there too, but she’d fall asleep at some point.

“I’m going to sleep,” Telos announced, carrying Estie to their room.

Mav was not watching the way Telos’ ass moved in those pants. He shook himself, but he couldn’t shake off the memory of those bare cheeks, thick and muscular under his hands, spreading open easily and taking him.

He hadn’t known what to expect. Telos had been completely slick somehow, tight, and it had felt like heaven inside him. The memory made his body tingle—it had only been hours. I’m going insane.

At their door, Telos paused and turned. Mav jerked his gaze up, only to find Telos watching him knowingly.

Mav froze. Had Telos caught Mav checking out his ass? Fuck, he had, hadn’t he?

Mav wet his lips, unsure how to proceed.

“Dragon Master!” Hadley flounced over, thrusting a small blue box into Mav’s hand. “Your blood flow supplement. You said you were going to drink it.”

Arousal flared at the back of his mind, bright and hot. Not his own. When Mav jerked his eyes away from Hadley, he found Telos disappearing into their room.

With all the blood in his brain leaving for southern pastures, Mav tightened his fist around the box, and followed him.